Life: As We Know It
by TGWnevertoforget
Summary: Based off 3x15 promo: With Will's career at stake, Alicia must confront her Georgetown demons to survive. Will this bring them together or tear apart their worlds? REVIEWS PLEASE. :D
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ig****nore the $45000 Baltimore payout on the show. I'm only doing judicial bribery. I hope to continue with this story but I also have to keep up with my school load.**

**Disclaimer: Blah blah. I don't own these characters. This is a not-for-profit story. **

"The Disciplinary Board is seeking my disbarment, Alicia."

"You don't deserve to be disbarred. This is my fault."

"No, the money I stole. I was… I was selfish."

"You saved me. You did it for me. Just tell them. It's okay, Will."

"Alicia. Just forget me. This is me. And I'm not dragging you down because I- I have to go. Thank you."

Alicia watches Will leave as he prepares to find out if life as he knows it will be destroyed. But it's all her fault. Peter doesn't understand how much she trusts Will after what he did for her.

* * *

><p>It was her seventh month of Georgetown. Her roommate threw a massive party in the dorm, mainly so she could flirt as many guys as liked and find someone to sleep with. That's how Alicia ended sitting on the ratty couch drinking flat beer out of some crappy plastic cups. It's boring and all she wants to do is curl up in her bed but someone's probably there. So when some guy offers to get her a drink she doesn't even think how stupid an idea that could be.<p>

(She didn't ask for his name. She doesn't realise how much it matters until she goes to the police station and finding herself rendered speechless. The policeman asks her what she needs but by then she's walking out, tears streaming down her battered face).

She wakes up to find herself bound to an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room naked from the waist up (and it's then she realises how horrible her life's about to become). She can barely breathe but still she fights him only it fails. He does everything he wants: stripping away her clothes, confidence, belief and life as she knows it. She only has to feel her aching body, the swelling bruises on her face and bloody gashes branded on skin to see that.

She's resorted to wearing winter clothing all year round and concealer. But layers of concealer do nothing to hide the marks of her horrors.

She had her exams two weeks after her ordeal and she finds her struggling to trust her instinct. In many eyes her mark was outstanding but she finds herself staring at the paper as though it might bite her. She's so focused on her 'poor' result she practically runs into the guy standing in front of her. She looks up to find Will from her Torts looking at her with concern.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine. Thanks Will. "

"But…"

"Oh the bruises and scars; I was learning to surf and got thrown into the rocks."

The lie slips out before she can stop it and he nods and waves goodbye.


	2. Chapter 2

It's that moment she realised she really needed friends. The problem is everyone was too busy looking for relationships. She was in no mood for relationships after what she had been through. So it's not surprising when Will was always trying to talk to her that she wouldn't open up to him.

But suddenly when she was assigned to work with him on a mock trial she started to realise he's a nice person (she fell in love with him later, but that's later). Together they're a fantastic team but somehow they lose the case, horribly, because no matter how fucking amazing they are no one can ignore video after video of evidence.

He was persistent. After that mock trial, she walked out, beaming when she noticed a photo on the wall of the top graduate. It was David Cooper, and she knew that face anywhere. Those evil eyes, the smirk on his face made her so, so ill. He raped her and he still won. She couldn't help when she began crying (again, she hates crying and yet here she is) when she ran into Will.

"Leave me alone."

Her actions speak otherwise as she grabbed onto his shirt and crying for so long. She didn't tell him though.

Six months later, she kissed him in the law library, just the two of them when he was discussing their strategy for their case and she just couldn't take it anymore before she realised what she did and ran to her apartment and slammed the door.

"Leesh!"

"Will, don't."

"Alicia, talk to me. Please. Why did you run?"

She opened the door slowly, staring at Will her scars (yet deepest scars running so far) the tiniest flaw to her perfect face.

"Will, I'm sorry. I shouldn't - It wasn't- It's not - Just don't worry."

"Alicia, you kissed me. You ran. And I really didn't - don't want you to. I love you."

Despite the most horrible circumstances she can't stop herself smiling at his confession, no matter how timed. She fell in love; that's it. So she told him the sordid story.

"I was raped. In my seventh month here. It was my roommate's party. I'm so stupid. I - I don't know, I'm just so scared I didn't tell anyone. I only found out his name a month later. It was too late. And I can't – or maybe I couldn't do something."

She watched him carefully, for any twitch that suggested his inevitable disgust for her, only it never actually came. He demanded she report it and she did (she wanted to be like Will someday).


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks f****or reviews. Please continue. I'm sorry my hiatuses are currently worse than the actual show.**

So she did. It was pretty fucking hard for the police to charge him with anything, however, if it happened so many months ago. There was no sophisticated testing back then either. She ended hiring a lawyer who had agreed to be paid by Will. The lawyer she was set up with, Angela Ross, was incredible but no one could ignore the complete lack of evidence.

The court hearing wouldn't be for months. In fact, it went over the summer and Will ended up taking an internship to get some experience. She missed him. She needed him because he was the only one who knew. But she never had the guts to call him. He called her.

"Hey, Leesh. How are you?"

"I miss you. I'm sorry. It's just, I'm scared. What if they don't listen?"

"Licia, it's okay. When's your case?"

"In a couple of weeks. Will you be back soon? I know, but I just need you here. A friend."

"Look I gotta go. I'll be there."

He sounded aloof and standoffish but maybe it was just problems at work. She was such a horrible friend; she didn't even ask about work.

The case was a catastrophe. Evidence was so circumstantial that it was insane.

It only got worse when she was put on the stand and she couldn't stop stuttering. Then the defence attorney kicked in.

"Miss Cavanaugh, you say you were raped on the 21st November 1982. Why did it take you over eight months to report this?"

"I… didn't know his name, and I was scared."

"But _if _this alleged rape did occur, would you not believe that the courts will carry out justice?"

"…"

"Or are you desperate for Mr Cooper's money?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're aware the defendant, David Cooper, is the sole inheritor of his family's multimillionaire mining industry."

"No."

"You're under oath and you say you have _never _known of Mr Cooper's background."

"I haven't."

"Okay, who is currently paying your legal fees?"

"Objection!"

"Your Honour, this answer will indicate Miss Cavanaugh's ulterior motives for reporting this case."

"Overruled."

"My friend. He doesn't want to see me hurt. Will Gardner."

"The defence rests."

Alicia thought it was over, all over until she heard a verdict no one was expecting.

"On the case of Mr David Cooper, we find him guilty for the rape of Alicia Cavanaugh."

"Jury, you are dismissed. Mr Cooper, I sentence to 7 years imprisonment at County Morrison Prison."


	4. Chapter 4

When she told Will the news, he wasn't at all surprised.

"Will, he's in prison. Thank you."

He jumped at that, staring at her, daring her to start yelling.

"What? I didn't do anything. Nothing! Okay!"

"What's up?"

He sighed then, not just for he did but for everything he did to save her and hope that she would finally be ready for him. He was too young to understand that love wasn't as idealistic as he hoped. But maybe he did. He sacrificed a lot make David Cooper pay.

"I bribed them. The foreman on the jury. The judge. I knew you wouldn't win. But I knew that you can't let him destroy you."

"How?"

Even in her head she saw how stupid she was for really thinking people would truly see a guilty man.

And Will protected her. Again. It wouldn't be the last time.

So she kissed him so hard he almost fell off the couch.

God, it felt amazing. Not just kissing him, but that she wasn't scared of doing this. Will always cared, though.

"Alicia, are you sure? It's okay."

She was ready to say 'yes' but she knew she couldn't. It was too soon.

"Will. Thank you. Really. But what happens to you? I think I might be falling for you but not yet. I promise, I want you."

He smiled softly then.

"It's gonna be good, Leesh. We're gonna be good." before leaning in for another kiss.

She didn't think how he got the money. And she certainly didn't know that this bribery would end up costing them so much.

* * *

><p>When her phone rings, and it's Will she practically jumps onto it.<p>

"Will."

"They want to disbar me. But there's a vote. I asked Kalinda to look into it. James Monson is the head of the board and-"

"What?"

"He was accused to gang rape when he was in law school but he was never convicted nor charged. This thing is,his friend was charged to seven years at County Morrison Prison in 1984."

"Oh my God. I can fix this. You can't lose your career because of… because of D-of what _he _did to me."

"Don't do _what_, Leesh? You can't do anything; not even say his name. _I _did wrong. I'll suffer the consequences. I deserve this and I can't drag you down."

She hangs up the phone, on the verge of tears. (Would you believe she only cried twice after justice was done and she fell in love? And yet, Will still brings her to tears).

She calls Kalinda.


End file.
